Holden Launches Energy and Environment Week

SYDNEY – June 5, 2012: As part of Holden’s ongoing commitment to taking a leadership position in the fields of energy and sustainability, the Lion brand has today launched Energy and Environment Week (E&E Week).

This four-day campaign is focussed on raising awareness of energy and environment initiatives and launches in conjunction with World Environment Day. A nation-wide event, E&E Week sees events and awareness campaigns being held simultaneously at five different Holden sites across Australia.

While not going on sale until later this year, the game-changing electric Volt is the jewel in Holden’s efficiency crown. As such, it is only fitting that the Volt plays a central role in E&E week and will be on display at Holden headquarters in Melbourne, Holden Spare Parts Organisation (HSPO) in Dandenong, Victoria, and will be on debut at Holden Vehicle Operations (HVO) in South Australia.

“The world is changing rapidly and it’s important that Holden evolves with it. It’s also crucial that our employees and partners are committed to our energy and environment goals,” said Richard Marshall – Director of Energy, Environment and Technology.

“And that’s primarily what E&E week is all about; sharing with Holden employees our vision for the future and raising awareness of our energy and sustainability initiatives.”

Examples of E&E Week events being held around the country include a Holden tree planting volunteer program with LandCare on World Environment Day in Adelaide, electronic waste disposal collections held at all sites and a variety of seminars and workshops highlighting energy efficiency and waste reduction tips for the home, office and manufacturing floor.

E&E week represents just one example of Holden’s ongoing commitment to sustainability; other initiatives include HoldenIT’s hardware refresh rollout. This rollout has included a switch to more energy efficient processors and low-powered devices. The switch will help reduce the carbon footprint for IT devices across the entire business.

HoldenIT has also successfully rolled out more energy efficient LCD monitors to HSPO. This initiative has reduced the energy consumed by monitors at this site by more than 66%. An additional benefit is that the heat dissipated from the new screens is far less, reducing the reliance on air conditioning.

At HVO a long-term, five-year energy efficiency program means the site’s 2012 electricity and gas useage targets are considerably lower than 2007. This year’s targets involve a reduction in electricity use of 28 percent, and a reduction in gas use of 40 percent from 2007 levels. Combined, the targets contained in this energy and efficiency program involve a total carbon dioxide emissions reduction of approx. 43,000 tonnes compared to 2007 and a significant reduction in the plant’s carbon footprint.